Sir Keir Starmer will make a plea to disillusioned stay at home voters, warning that apathy caused by ineffective politics could keep the Tories in power, i can reveal.
The Labour leader will fire the starting gun on his election race this week with a new year’s message stressing the “power of the vote” and telling the public that 2024 will be a “year of choice”.
In a pitch to disengaged voters – a group the party hopes to motivate out to the polling station on election day – Sir Keir will urge against apathy caused by sleaze and scandal and a political system which he believes is not serving the public, i understands.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will give his own new year address next week where he will attempt to portray himself as a tax-cutting leader and signal he wants to go further in the Budget, sources said. He is set to accuse Sir Keir of “sitting on a plan to increase tax”, sources said.
Over Christmas, No 10 confirmed the Budget would be held in early March – leading to mounting speculation that Sir Keir and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are gearing up for a spring election in May. Otherwise, the election is expected to be held this autumn.
Sir Keir Starmer will tell voters the day of ousting Mr Sunak and his party from office “is getting closer by the second”.
Sources close to the Labour leader told i he would use his speech to promise a “year of change” for the British public but only “if people vote for it”.
He will seek to persuade those disengaged by “the years of scandal and self-serving” not to stay home on polling day.
It comes after a Tory MP told i the party was concerned that it too could be stung by disillusioned voters who choose not to support any party on election day.
In his new year speech on Thursday, Sir Keir is expected to say: “A year of choice. A chance to change. A clock that is ticking. The moment when power is taken out of Rishi Sunak’s hands and given, not to me, but to you. That moment is getting closer by the second.”
He will pitch directly to volunteers and public sector workers who feel let down by the political system, saying: “So if you’ve spent the last 14 years volunteering to keep your park clean, year library open, for children to have opportunities in your community.
“If you’ve been breaking your back to keep on trading, steering your business through the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the challenge of Brexit and the chaos of Westminster.
“If you’ve been serving our country, whether in scrubs or the uniform of your regiment and what you want now is a politics that serves you, then make no mistake: this is your year.”
Sir Keir will say: “The opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands. And that is a new year message of hope.
“The hope of democracy. The power of the vote. The potential for national renewal. A chance to turn the page, lift the weight off our shoulders, unite as a country and get our future back.”
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak is expected to attempt to set himself apart from the Labour leader by using tax as a dividing line.
A Government source said the prime minister wants to cut taxes in the upcoming Budget. “It all depends on the economic situation at the time… but he has been consistently clear that he wants to cut tax, he believes in people keeping more of their money,” the source told i.
They said that Mr Sunak was “a low-tax Conservative” and “wants to reduce taxes wherever we can”.
“Of course Starmer has a pledge to spend £28bn more a year, which will either be funded by borrowing, although they have said they will reduce debt, or it comes from tax. So they might be sitting on a plan to increase tax,” the source said.
Labour has already set out that its plan to invest £28bn a year would come into play after 2027 if it were to win power and wound be funded by borrowing.
A Labour spokeswoman described the suggestion Sir Keir was planning to increase taxes was “desperate tosh from a Tory party which has not only increased taxes on working people but crashed the UK economy” and argued Labour “is now the party of economic responsibility”.
She told i: “The Prime Minister can claim all he wants but hardworking families see the reality of 14 years of Tory government in their bills each month. They’re paying the price of economic failure through higher prices, higher taxes and higher mortgages.”